I attended a strategic planning conference today. The objective was to create and execute a plan to strategically place a dimpled spheroid on a manicured expanse of lawn with eighteen designated objectives into which said dimpled spheroid must come to rest.

Yes, I played golf.

Today was the annual Metro Philadelphia HFMA Chapter’s annual Auditing and Tax Update, followed by our golf tournament. We play at a course called Paxon Hollow, which is a municipal course that, while not very long, does require good strategic planning skills (aka course management) and, even more important, proper execution of the strategic initiatives.

I shot a 97 – now, on the surface that score is not very good, but this year is the first year that I have ever broken 100 at this course, so, from my perspective, it was a good day.

I played with my boss, my peer from one of my sister hospitals and the Director of Capital Management from the system headquarters. We smoked cigars, drank beer and generally had a great time.

The weather was pretty decent – it was windy and a front was moving through, but there were only a few sprinkles – I brought out my club brolly (an umbrella designed to protect the clubs during the rain) once.

I managed to play all 18 holes – last year, I quit after about 12 holes because my back was simply killing me. I had concern about completing the 18 holes this year, but judicious use of pain killers, anti-inflamatories and Ben Gay back pads controlled the issue such that I was able to play all 18. In fact, I hit some of my best shots (and worst putts) on the last hole of the day.

So, now I am back at home, pain killers taken and back stiffened, blogging for my public. Soon, I shall sleep – and I know I will sleep because I had to get up at 5:30 this morning to meet with a doctor before going to the strategic planning conference.

Eight Days until (Carnival) Liberty.

So, good night all. Speak with you soon.

Love

JustJon

“Getting paid for all the services and supplies that a hospital provides would seem like an elemental strategy in order for any hospital to function, but many CFOs are not even aware of the scope of the billing mismanagement issue.”

“Improving Cash Flow with Better Charge Capture & Denial Management” MedAssets & HFMA. October 2005

The issue is not necessarily that CFO’s are not aware of the billing issues, it’s just that they may feel they have ‘bigger fish to fry’. All CFO’s know that getting paid is essential to the bottom line of the organization. But not all CFO’s know the real facts behind billing mismanagement issues. Often times, physicians are leaving money laying on the table because they did not accurately document the services performed on the patient and therefore will not receive accurate reimbursement for those rendered services. This is the very reason why tools to overcome the billing mismanagement issues must be given to the physicians. That’s where the issues begin… physician documentation; but oftentimes the solution is left to the billing office to figure out, when they’re not the ones who created the issue. So ComplyMD aims to nip the problem in the bud — by capturing appropriate documentation at the point of service, in order to avoid dealing with billing issues later on down the road.

“Hospitals across the country lose multiple millions of dollars every year due to mismanagement of the billing process. No matter the size of the organization, billing inconsistencies affect all healthcare facilities to some degree—even those that are on top of the problem. On average, providers lose 5 percent of gross revenues, and that can translate into millions of dollars for a single organization.”

“Improving Cash Flow with Better Charge Capture & Denial Management” MedAssets & HFMA. October 2005

As we all know, profit margins are tightly squeezed in the healthcare industry. The billing process has a huge impact on those profit margins. What do facilities bill for? Patient encounters. How do they know what to bill for? Through physician documentation. How will these patient encounters be properly documented? There… you’re stumped. It’s not through dictation after the fact, and it’s not on their 3×5 index card they carry around in their pockets.

If facilities want their physicians to properly document their patient encounters, they need to give their physicians the appropriate tools with which to accomplish the task. ComplyMD is just such a tool. It allows physicians to document their procedures in real time, immediately following their patient encounter. The software helps physicians to document in coder-language, in real-time, in a comprehensive manner… no more leaving money on just laying on the table. Also, billing inconsistencies pose the time issue. Inconsistencies lead to kickbacks from payers, which lead to many phone calls between nurses, physicians, coders, managers, billing officers, etc. So your reimbursement cycle is delayed. ComplyMD helps to minimize and hopefully deplete billing inconsistencies within facilities which serves to improve the facility’s cash flow. So, ComplyMD helps the bottom line of the facility in a three-fold dimension: improved cash flow, increased (accurate) revenue and increased compliance.